Problem Solved
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 822a: As Rachel ponders the idea of dating Sam, a broken spotlight gives her an in to spend time with him.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 39th cycle. Now cycle 40!_

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><p><em><strong>INTRODUCING "CHEAT SHEET" - <strong>If you want to know ahead of time when a certain series will be updated next, just reassemble the link below and check out the list, save it, print it, bookmark it, whatever you need!  
>Go to: <span>gleekathon [dot] tumblr [dot] com [slash] cheatsheet<span>_

_** UPDATED WITH CYCLE 40 CHEAT SHEET ** Check it out to find out about **shift days**, starting in cycle 40!_

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><p><em><strong>This is a shift day [see above].<strong> There will be another upload this afternoon: The Ties That Bind, chapter 3._

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><p><strong>"Problem Solved"<br>Rachel, Sam & Nell, Samchel  
>Extra to the Sam &amp; Nell series<br>Prequel to "It's a Two-Way Matter" (leftover favorite from cycle 35 (715-735)) **

She'd been rehearsing a number for Glee Club, down on her basement stage, when one of the spotlights went out. Her eyes snapped upward, groaning. This was the second spotlight that needed fixing. It wasn't the bulb, they'd just changed it…

"Great, just great…" she muttered under her breath, moving to shut off the music, now that the busted spotlight had wrecked her performance mood. She stomped back up the stairs, making a pit stop in the kitchen to grab cookies, something to distract her…

"Problem?" she jumped, turning to find Dad sitting at the table, reading the newspaper. "That answers that."

"Another spotlight's acting up," she explained, sitting across from him.

"Oh, well, we need to deal with that," he put the paper down. "Can it wait until this weekend?" She gave a nod, trying not to appear over-anxious. "Can I get one of those?" he pointed to the cookies. She smiled, nudging one over. "Thank you, Miss," he stuffed it in his mouth, picking up his newspaper again.

"Guess I'll give it another shot, I'm sure I can aim a lamp or something," she got up, pushing a fringe of hair out of her face, and put another of her cookies in front of him before heading back to the basement.

"Thank you!" she heard him call after her, making her smile.

She got down to the basement, sat at the edge of the stage, trying to will back her mood. And then, for some reason, her mind went right to Sam, to the duet they'd done a couple weeks before, but more so to him, how sweet he was, how funny and talented…

Okay, the truth was this had been happening a lot lately, to think about Sam, to miss him when he wasn't around. Now what she was thinking was she needed to find a way to get him here, or to go over there…

"I should record more lullabies…" she suddenly decided, getting up and moving to set up her recording equipment. She grabbed her pad and pencil, starting to list the songs she'd do. She had done enough research the last time to have leftovers… Sam had been impressed when she'd told him this, and then she'd blushed.

They had connected over an encounter at the mall, where she'd ended up helping him shop for new clothes for Nell. She still remembered how awkward it had been, to hold the baby girl, but that had changed over time, and the little blonde had become someone she was anxious to see.

But then there was Sam… It should have felt odd, or problematic, to be getting so involved with a guy her age who had a baby… But she knew Sam, at least to some point, before she'd found out about Nell. She knew the kind of guy he was, and he was that guy all on his own. She hadn't really thought about him in any way before the usual at first, her being with Finn and him with Quinn… But then she'd become single, and so had he, and then the mall…

He had become a friend, first, and for that she was nothing but thankful. She had known him as one guy when they were in school, but at home or outside, when Nell was around, she saw him as a whole, saw who he was deep inside. There was no hiding the caring and protective man resting in his heart where his daughter was concerned. In seeing that, it made seeing him with everybody else bring out the things that had always been there, even before she could see them.

She hadn't gone in there planning to insert herself into the family, and it wasn't that she was seeing herself that way yet, that would be… silly… she and Sam weren't even dating y…

Okay, yes, she had been entertaining the thought of the two of them going out to dinner, the movies… She'd been wanting to go to mini golf… and if they just happened to fall in a long embrace, then so be it…

But then thinking about dating Sam also meant possibly growing nearer to that little girl of his. The problem wasn't that she might grow closer to Nell, but that Nell might grow closer to her… and who knew what that could mean, for either of them.

It might have seemed premature at this point, but this wasn't exactly a typical situation, and he wasn't typical, and her, well… she was far from typical, always had been, without regret. She would stand on the stage, under the lights, the… defective…

Her eyes snapped upward, and she looked to the faulty spotlights… she smiled, an idea brewing up.

What she needed was contact, and she had a reason right there sitting above her all defective-like… She could ask him to come over and fix the lights or at least try to… He could get hurt, but… it was a perfect excuse, and how often did those come about? If anything came about and he couldn't fix it, Pop would take care of it…

All these scenarios she'd imagined, all these possibilities and these potential issues, they were all good and fine, but there was still something missing in between, and that was the dating part. She didn't even know if he liked her… that way. She thought he might, but there was no promise… So much to ride on two broken down spotlights.

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>******always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!******


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